This morning, Justin had another chance to speak briefly to the Youth and Young Professionals in church. The topic this morning was dating, marriage, and the glory of God. See, recently there have been some issues with people dating and getting engaged to non-believers, specifically from the predominant faith here. So our pastor asked Justin and Roger to take one Sunday and address this topic. Obviously, the subject requires more than one hour on a Sunday morning, but it was a good start. One man gave his testimony about disobeying the Lord when he dated and married a non-Christian. By God’s grace, his wife accepted Jesus as her Savior, but he went through a very intense trial period after realizing the gravity of his sin. He knew divorce was not an answer. He repented, was restored to the Lord and to the church, and now is a really wonderful, humble, godly servant who is highly respected among the leaders of our church. It was so wonderful that he was vulnerable enough to share his story to no less than 37 people this morning! (Yes, I counted them – 37 youth and young professionals!!!!) They asked him many questions and a great discussion ensued. Roger and Justin both opened the Word of God to field more questions and to encourage these young believers. Thanks, Chris M., for your notes from your series a few years ago – they proved very helpful. Actually, I’m pretty sure not all of them were believers – maybe 5 or 8. But, wow, was it a hot topic! This is a very, very difficult issue as there are not many young dedicated believers in the church here anyway, and the young women greatly outnumber the men. So when these women get to be 25, 26, 27, 28 they receive tremendous pressure from their friends and family to date and get married. Much, much more pressure than in the States. There is a great stigma for unmarried women past the age of 30 or 35. Something must be wrong with them. All that being said, please, please pray for these people that the Lord would grant them courage and faith to trust Him – their heavenly Father and Husband. Pray that they would first desire to please Him, and then pleas their families and friends and communities. And pray for us as we hope to shepherd them through these dynamic years of their lives. I am really hoping to hold a purity conference designed for young women sometime in the next year – possibly next Spring. So please pray for that to come together and for it to honor God in the way that it encourages and teaches and admonishes the young female believers here.
Also, I have started discipling a 15-year old girl, Evi, who has been a friend of mine for a few years. We decided to study and memorize Ephesians together, which we are both very excited about. Her heart is very teachable, and she is hungry for God. Please pray for our mutual encouragement in the Word and in prayer together.
Please continue to pray for the Lord to send His Spirit to work in the hearts of the young men here in Albania. There are just so few of them that are sold out for God! I was told that a few young men decided not to come to Friday’s Prayer & Praise at our home because there was no free meal. Also, some did not come to today’s Fellowship Lunch because lunch was not provided – we asked everyone to bring their own lunch or pick it up on the way. (Hey, we provided drinks and snacks, just not the main course!) Where as most of the young women are eager for fellowship, it seems the young men are eager for free food.
Also, thank you, thank you for praying for our language acquisition! We are both making progress each week. Although we both know we could be more disciplined (can’t we always?), we have been so encouraged! I know basic sentence structure and am beginning to learn the hundreds and hundreds of noun and verb endings, so can make simple conversations with shopkeepers, friends, and Oakley ☺ (who doesn’t talk back and won’t make fun of my mistakes). I know I make a lot of grammar mistakes, but for the most part people are forgiving and will help me out. Justin has also found a philosophy of learning that is working for him. He uses the PILAT program that we learned in North Carolina at the Center for Intercultural Training (we were there last fall). It also keeps our language teacher, Arta, on her toes as well as she has never used this specific language acquisition program. Arta is so wonderfully encouraging and patient, and willing to do whatever it takes to help us learn. So we are so grateful for your prayers!
Right now, Justin, Kreshnik, Ryan (our teammate), and Arbi (our landlord’s son) are in Vlora scoping out a place for our summer evangelistic camp, Camp Eureka. They left this afternoon and will be back tomorrow afternoon. So, it’s just me and Oakley ☺. Please pray for the many, many logistics of putting together this camp. The team from Grace Church of DuPage is planning most of the camp, but Justin and I are in charge of the logistics on this side of the pond. It’s very difficult to do business here – not only different language, but different culture. If you’ve been in a developing country or in a post-communist one, you know what I mean. We have to keep reminding ourselves, “Yes, they use logic. It’s just not our logic” because we are so tempted to say “Be logical!!” Also, please pray for Arbi and his girlfriend, Adisa. Justin and I have spent quite a bit of time with them both. They are really nice and wonderful, and sometimes we wonder how they can have such nice and respectable character and not be Christians. But we know they are not saved and that they desperately need Jesus, and so we are praying that God would guide us in our conversation and time spent with them.
And here are the staple prayer items:
• Marriage
• Daily relationship with God, consistency and depth in devotional life
• Increase of love and service towards our Albanian friends and acquaintances
• Wisdom and humility in shepherding of the young believers
Well, I didn’t intend to be so long-winded. Thanks for caring enough to read this. We are so thankful for your partnership in the gospel. We take great comfort and courage from knowing you are praying and from your emails. Please continue to lift us up before our Faithful God.
With Gratefulness,
Gretchen
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